In the past, portable and stationary ceramic electrolytic devices for generation of oxygen have been difficult to manufacture for numerous reasons. First, numerous prior art devices used ceramic-to-ceramic type fabrication techniques which resulted in a product which was not sufficiently tough to be reliable during transport or usage. The ceramic materials used and the ceramic-to-ceramic interface were brittle and would tend to crack readily. Additionally, fabrication costs for such units were high due to the use of expensive ceramic materials. Such fabrication techniques may also have included expensive permanent or hermetic gas seals. Prior art units also tend to have difficulty controlling and adjusting output flow rate, are not small enough to meet desired space and weight requirements, and have high power requirements which are in excess of desired limits. Moreover, such devices were unable to meet desired output requirements despite such additional disadvantages. The devices are typically useful for medical, disinfecting, sterilizing, cutting, welding or other industrial oxygen applications, and this requires consistent and reliable output. For example, in the case of an oxygen generator, continuous output requirements in the range of at least 2-3 liters per minute must be obtained, with levels of at least 5-15 liters per minute being desired.
Additional disadvantages with prior art techniques are set forth in the background of U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,483 concerning oxygen generation systems which is incorporated herein by reference. Still further enhancements continue to be made to the mechanical properties of ceramic cell technology as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,542. However, such improvements continue to have disadvantages, including the use of expensive precious metals such as silver and palladium as structural components. Also, the use of increased amounts of metal in the composite results in undesirable direct electrical connections, which limit the usefulness of the cell in certain applications.